The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1887-07-23
THE PEACEMAkER.
Description of tile Most Successful Sub
marine Boat Ever Constructed.

The American boat Peacemaker has, |
however, created the greatest sensation
in the nautical world. Like most Of her
kind, she is cigar-shaped. with Trimmed
ends, and when seen floating on the
surface of the ocean, somewhat re-
sembles capsized yacht. She is thirty
feet long, eight feet beam and seven
feet six inches depth of hold; and has a
shell-plating seven-eighths of an inch
thick, well stiffened. SO as to withstand
the greatest probable pressure of water.
Her crew consists of helmsman and
an engineer, who obtain admission into
the hold by small manhole. which is
then closed with closely fitting lid. A
dome projecting from the upper sur
face of the hull is fitted with glass
windows, to enable the helmsman. who
stands with his head in this raised
space, to make good the course when
the vessel is not submerged. These
feeble parts are protected from injury
by kind of crest, which runs fore
and aft, thus giving her the peculiar
appearance to which we have previously
referred. Some sleeves, fashioned from
impermeable material. are fixed behind
and on each side of the dome. so that
the helmsman may readily apply the
torpedoes at the most opportune mo-
ment by inserting his hands into the
sleeves Compressed air Is stored up
in tubes fixed to her sides; and 10 is pro-
posed to absorb the carbonic acid and
all other deleterious products of COM
bustion by chemical means. She is lit
up by electricity and propelled by a
steam.engine of fourteen horsepower,
having its boiler surrounded by an iron
Jacket, like one iron pot inside OF an
other, inclosing between it and the
boiler a saturated solution of caustic
soda, which possesses great heating
power when water-vapor is passed into
it. The funicular railways of America
avail themselves of the same method,
and thus avoid smoke and dirt. In
stead of permitting the Steam to escape
| into the atmosphere, it is condensed
inside the jacket containing the caus-
| tic soda. The latent heat of the
steam is set free by condensa-
ton, and adds itself to the heat
OF the dissolution of caustic soda In
water. This system may be compared
| to a boiler in which the caustic soda
replaces the combustible, and the
vapor performs the part of the oxygen
Of the air which feeds the furnaces.
When it is wished to get under way,
the boiler is first flied with water
heated to the boiling-point, and the
soda solution is put inside the jacket
at temperature of about two hundred
and sixty degrees Fahrenheit. The
result of recent trial trip was very
satisfactory, for she is said to have at
tanned velocity of eight miles an
hour when well submerged, and to be
capable of retaining this rate of travel
for seve, al hours. Her submersion is
effected by filling her ballast-tanks with
water; and she is raised by working a
rudder which is movable about horl
zontal axis. A pressure-gauge indi
Gates the depth to which the boat has
descended, and, owing to the position o.
the center of gravity, there is no tend
ency to turn turtle The torpedoe'
are fastened to her sides. tied each t.
the other with cord. An externa
covering of cork renders them buoy
ant; and they are furnished will
electro-magnets so that they ma.
adhere to the bottom of the vessel DIES
tined for destruction. The arrange
ment is such that, when let go from
the Peacemaker, by the helhsman in
serting his arms into the before-men
toned impermeable sleeves, continu
Gus current circulates.
The results leave little to be desire'
so far as they go; but it would be pre-
mature to follow the Americans in thei
extravaganza praise until further trial
have been made under varying condi
tions. Admiral Porter, of the Unite'
States navy, is firmly of the opinion
that with six such submarine boats h
could either drive off or sink any hos
tile fleet bent on attacking New York
Professor Tuck, the designer of thi
sarcastically named boat, says that h
can construct full-sized, powerful
submarine steamship which shall navi
gate the waters between Dover an
Calais without causing any of that ma
de mer which renders the passage @
the ..silver streak" so Objectionable t
landsmen. Probably, pleasure-seeker
or Cooks tourists would prefer to sui
fer than to risk evils which they kno,
not of.-Chanabers' Journal.